A Golden Era For The Golden Shower?

Urinating on people is nothing new but thanks to Nicole Kidman's new movie, The Paperboy, the act has reached new heights in pop culture.

In the 1997 season premiere of Friends, Chandler had to pee on Monica in order to soothe a jellyfish sting. But not since 2002, when a video of R. Kelly allegedly urinating on a young girl surfaced, have "golden showers" reached the national attention that is has today. At the time media outlets reported on it as an "incident" and avoided the phrase altogether. Yet, it did force the sexual act out of the taboo closet and into public conversation.

Via fffriends.tumblr.com

Cut to 2012: It's on TV, in movies and even profiled by New York Magazine.

Via nymag.com

In a May article, published by NY's Daily Intel, a female publicist described her history with urination with Fifty Shades of Grey-like fascination:

"When Big Daddy comes upstairs to shower after his workout he says I need a shower too, but I don't think it's going to be a golden one. He’s obsessed with big tits and when he sees a woman with a huge pair he always says he wants to pee on the huge fun-bags (his word, not mine). So he does this to me. I’ve been peed on in the shower by boyfriends before, but as a joke more than anything. This time it feels like ownership, like he is marking his territory."

Earlier it was even a topic of conversation during an April taping of Watch What Happens Live when Andy Cohen put Mad Men's John Slattery in the hot seat. Slattery plead the fifth when asked which celebrity he would give a golden shower.

Via bravotv.com

But the act reached new heights on television thanks to HBO's Girls. In a recent episode, entitled, "Weirdos Need Girlfriends Too," Adam urinated on Hannah while showering together. The character committed the act as a joke but one that possibly went too far for Lena Dunham's character.

Via blog.zap2it.com

However, the biggest headlines came from the Cannes Film Festival when Nicole Kidman was seen peeing on Zac Efron in their new film, The Paperboy:

"When Nicole Kidman Gave Zac Efron a Golden Shower at Cannes" (Vulture)

"Golden Shower In Cannes: Nicole Kidman Pees On Zac Efron In ‘The Paperboy’. Critics Delightfully Appalled" (MoviePilot)

"Nicole Kidman Gives Zac Efron A Golden Shower (Just Like Chandler And Monica!) In The Paperboy" (vh1)

While the scene was hardly a sexual act (Nicole was remedying Zac's unfortunate jellyfish sting) it was explicit in the film. Vulture's Kyle Buchanan described it in a recent profile of the movie:

"Nicole Kidman looms over a supine Zac Efron, cries out, 'If anyone's gonna pee on him, it's gonna be me,' and then squirts an impressive stream of urine onto the High School Musical star's face and bare chest."

In a world where kink is in (ahem, Fifty Shades of Grey and the S&M love life of Don and Megan Draper), is the shower the next to break the taboo ceiling? Or have we reached the height of the golden shower?